Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen's testimony in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee today was remarkable for all the wrong reasons.
Nielsen dodged questions about Trump's comments on "shithole countries" and his desire for more white immigrants from Norway, but she also inadvertently revealed that she has no idea how the programs her agency oversees work.
As you know we're days away from a possible government shutdown because Trump blew up the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and Congress is unable or unwilling to codify it, but Nielsen apparently doesn't know what all the fuss is about.
During her testimony, Nielsen said no DREAMers have lost their protected status and that none would lose their status until March, but that is not true. Thousands have already lost their status.
Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) explained the situation to Nielsen, who had earlier claimed incorrectly that only DACA recipients who had been convicted of crimes had lost their status.
“DACA participants had to renew their status and only those whose status expired at a certain time frame were allowed to renew after the ending of DACA was announced,” she said. “So there were thousands of participants in DACA who were already on renewal status, and so they couldn’t apply for renewal. These are the young people who have lost DACA status, 15,000 of them. Take my word for it.” [...]
“I will get back to you on that, ma’am,” Secretary Nielsen said. “I am not familiar with 15,000 who have lost their status. As I understand it, the program ends March 5.”
This is the secretary of Homeland Security revealing that her understanding of her own agency is fundamentally wrong.
Thanks to a recent court ruling from the North District of California, Citizenship and Immigration Services is once again accepting applications for DACA, but the process has been shut down since October 5th. Anyone who was unable to renew their status ahead of the deadline lost it.
There's a level of racial malevolence and animosity in the Trump regime that compels them to say and do terrible things, but there's also a staggering level of incompetence that contributes to the overall effect.